Rescuer of Necktie Salesmen

Although U.S. foundations have poured out millions in support of the nation's composers, the big money has usually gone to the big names. For many a talented newcomer, a musical grubstake is still virtually impossible to find. In the audience at Tanglewood last week sat a man who has committed much of his time and most of his fortune to changing all that. He is 49-year-old Chicago Wine Importer Paul Fromm, and he was at Tanglewood to hear the works of two of his proteges, Ben Weber's Serenade for Strings and Alvin Epstein's Sabrina Fair, premiered by members of the Boston Symphony.

Forced to Flee. When he set up his Fromm Music Foundation four years ago, Paul Fromm was nourishing an ambition as old as his student days in Germany. The son of a prosperous wine grower, he early became an enthusiastic supporter of contemporary German music, was on the point of establishing a music foundation in his homeland when he was forced to flee the country during Hitler's pogroms of 1938. In the U.S. he prospered quickly, set up his own wine-importing firm and bought into several other businesses. By 1952 he was ready to turn his attention to U.S. music.

Fromm's plan was simple. Computing the profits from his various enterprises, he set aside enough to finance expansion and to support himself and his family in an unpretentious seven-room apartment ("We live well, but we are not country club"), gave all the rest (roughly $50,000 a year) to the Fromm Foundation. To help him select worthy recipients of his charities, Founder Fromm hired a permanent four-man reviewing staff of professional musicians* (supplemented by occasional guest experts), gave them complete autonomy to award grants to composers who might or might not be to his personal taste. Of the more than 600 young composers whose works the staff has reviewed, only 56 have received grants. "There is a lot of just good stuff; we are looking for art," explains Fromm. Although the initial awards are modest ($350 to $1,000), the foundation is prepared to "commit" itself to a composer for several years, i.e., to stay with him until he has achieved the reputation that will enable him to go on to bigger stipends from bigger foundations or stand alone. Beyond providing cash awards, the foundation arranges public performances of its composers' works, has them printed, recorded and released through regular channels.

Saved from Grubbing. Paul Fromm's reward for his good works is the knowledge that he has saved many a first-rate composer from moneygrubbing. (On the theory that too much money can be as destructive as too little, he has also vowed never to expose his daughter to the temptations of a large inheritance.) He regards as one of his major triumphs the liberation of Composer Benjamin Lees (TIME, May 7) from the stress of film music writing. "If Ben kept it up, he would go to pieces musically," says Fromm. Last week's Tanglewood concert helped to get Composer Epstein a music teaching job. "We need the young composers far more than they need us," says Fromm. "All the foundation can do is see that they don't have to sell neckties."

* Violinist Alexander Schneider, Brooklyn College's Siegmund Levarie, De Paul's Alexander Tcherepnin and the American Conservatory of Music's Max Sinzheimer.

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